Being a businessman is all about making tough decisions under pressure. The very mood behind the previous sentence is somewhat ominous and scary, but pressure can sometimes be a good thing, depending on your type of personality and the situation at hand. Here, we’re going to deal with handling stressful situations, regardless of the previously mentioned factors.
Get Introduced with the Situation
The best way to prepare for potential problems is getting familiarized with the situation. This will help you come up with the best decision possible and thrive in success. This is where your research skills kick in – although you shouldn’t rely on anecdotal evidence, like trusted friends’ opinions, you should definitely acquire it, just to be safe. In no way should you disregard the importance of hard information, but the mixture between the two mentioned types of research is the best possible combination. In addition to researching, studying all the relevant material should be of top priority.
Get Introduced with the Outcomes
Prediction plays a vital role in making business decisions, especially under pressure. Naturally, you can’t really know the future, but the closest thing to predicting it is knowing the potential outcomes. When making predictions, you should ask yourself a couple of useful questions. What are the long-term effects? What are the short-term effects? How much impact will this decision potentially have on my business? One of the most risky and critical things about making decisions under pressure is the ‘To hell with it!’ factor. Under pressure, you are most likely to go with your gut (based on small factors and short-term effects) and, although this sounds cool, approaching the issue cold-headed, equipped with solid information beats going on a hunch any day of the week!
Practice Whenever You Can
The best way to get in shape for making tough decisions is practicing this in your daily life. You may find this funny, but playing role-playing video games can do you a world of good in terms of simulating decision making, especially if you are a gaming enthusiast. It goes the same for the day-to-day stuff, such as deciding whether you can tackle finishing all your chores in time and what to do if your schedule is extremely busy. Additionally, there are pharmaceutical alternatives that might help you think faster and thus make better decisions. Of course, if you’ve watched the movie “Limitless”, you are well aware of the NZT-48 pill that gives Bradley Cooper some cool super-cognitive abilities. Although this pill is Hollywood’s creation, useful NZT alternatives do exist, such as Ritalin, Modafinil and others. Our advice is to practice decision making as much as you can!
Committing to It
Decisions that need to be made under pressure truly are difficult, but there is another problem – committing to them. Even if you’ve done everything by the book and determined the best possible course of action, even if the course of action is clear now, this doesn’t mean that it’s going to be easy. You have to commit to your final decision – implement it as soon as possible, in order to avoid having second thoughts, but don’t jump into it without planning and thinking. The fine line between success and failure here is finding the perfect balance between planning and timing – match the two of these properly and you’re bound to make a solid decision.
Let’s be honest – making high-pressured decisions isn’t easy and even if you’ve followed all the outlined advice, things are still going to be hard. But that’s just how the business world works – it’s a realm where professionalism and ruthlessness collide into a whirlwind of high-pressured situations. Predicting, planning and practicing are key factors in solving all decision-based problems!